NEW DELHI, January 9: The cacophony of the Delhi police's blast prevention audio cassette playing at ITO was drowned out by the loud bang of a bomb blast. Cries of the victims filled the air a minute later. The blast was so powerful that some victims were thrown several metres away.The scene at the LNJP hospital was chaotic with the police unable to control the large crowd that had gathered outside. Several rounds of heated exchange broke out between the police and the relatives. A minor scuffle ensued. The list of the injured had not been put up even two hours after the blast. The scene inside the casualty ward was gory. Doctors tried to cope with the amputations required. Other were busy stemming the flow of blood and bandaging wounds. The phone in the casualty ward never stopped ringing till someone simply put it off the hook. Doctors had a tough time attending to the injured given the limited space in the ward. Many of the injured were just left waiting.Most of the victims were office-goers. ``I was just returning back to office after my lunch time. Suddenly there was a big bang and smoke filled my eyes. Some sharp object hit me and my legs almost collapsed,'' said A.A. Trikhi, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax.Amarjeet Kaur, an Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) employee, said: ``I had gone to buy some fruit with my colleagues, and we had just bought something when there was a loud bang and a colleague was just thrown away,'' said Kaur, who had sustained severe injuries in her left leg. Her colleague was stated to be serious.Many of the injured had 2-inch-long nails imbedded in their flesh and doctors had trouble extracting them. Said V.J. Anand, in-charge Surgical Emergency, at the LNJP hospital, ``Some even had wood splinters inside their body. There were also many cases of burns injuries on the face. We have just operated on a young girl. Her spleen, one of the kidneys and pancreas have been damaged and she might not survive.''Muhammed Furkan, a Junior Engineer at the Delhi Development Authority, broke down. ``I was returning after the Namaaz at the Masjid and suddenly there was a deafening sound and.I fell down. Thank God I am alive, what would have happened to my children?'' ``I was having tea at a shop in the lane, there was a loud noise and something hit my eyes,'' said Upkaar Singh, a salesman who sustained burn injuries on his face.Senior officials from the Income Tax Department, DDA and Ministry of External Affairs visited the ward as many of those injured were from these departments. ``I had just finished lunch and heard a loud bang, I thought it might be from the nearby power station but as I looked down, I discovered it was a blast,'' said Vijay Rizpur, Commissioner Planning, DDA.
